Current Issues and Enduring Questions 11th Edition Chapter 1
A comprehensive and versatile argument text, with a sharp focus on critical thinking.
Current Issues and Enduring Questions is a text and reader that serves as an extensive resource for teaching argument, persuasive writing, critical thinking, and research. It includes readings on topics that matter to students, such as being seen as "the other" and student loan forgiveness, issues that students will want to engage with and debate. Comprehensive coverage of classic and contemporary approaches to argument includes Aristotelian, Toulmin, Rogerian, and a range of alternative views, such as analyzing and writing about visual arguments.
This new edition does more than ever to make argument concepts clear, and to give students strategies for crafting effective arguments. For today's ever-increasingly visual learners who are challenged to separate what's real from what's not, new activities and visual flowcharts support information literacy. Newly annotated readings highlight important rhetorical moves. And new readings explore controversial issues such as mass incarceration, cultural appropriation, and the way computer algorithms make biased decisions.
The most comprehensive, balanced, and flexible resource for teaching critical thinking and argument. Current Issues and Enduring Questions includes thorough instruction on critical thinking, reading, writing, and argument and a wide-ranging anthology of arguments for analysis. The text shows students how to recognize and evaluate assumptions and apply critical thinking and reading skills to writing argumentative essays.
An extensive range of argument strategies. Early chapters give students a vocabulary for argument — thesis, claim, assumption, appeal, evidence, and more — in both text and visual genres. A unique section introduces students to the following approaches to argument: philosophical (the Toulmin model); logical (deduction, induction, fallacies); psychological (Rogerian); literary; and oral argument and debate.
A rich variety of perspectives and claims about issues in the news. 119 readings throughout the book (including ten student essays) showcase argument and inspire student response and analysis on topics such as the value of a college education, student loans, immigration, social media and relationships, the ideal society, and happiness. The anthology of readings includes debates and casebooks on current issues, as well as chapters on enduring philosophical questions.
Activities that engage critical thinking and allow students to experiment with argument techniques. "Thinking Critically" activities throughout the text give students practice in analyzing and constructing arguments, focusing on skills such as generating topics, defining terms and concepts, narrowing a thesis, and using transitions in argument.
Visual, student-friendly design. Colorful features make the book visually appealing and easy to navigate. Over eighty visuals such as ads, cartoons, photographs, and Web pages create opportunities for critical inquiry as well as a lively, up-to-date look.
Briefer versions that allow for even more flexibility and choice. If a smaller, lower-priced text is more appropriate, the same thorough coverage is available with fewer readings:
- Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing, Tenth Edition, has 50 readings, about a third of the amount in the larger book.
- From Critical Thinking to Argument: A Portable Guide, Sixth Edition, includes 17 readings.
New to This Edition
Two new debates, three new casebooks, and one new enduring questions chapter foreground issues that matter to students and make for an engaging classroom. Feedback from instructors teaching argument inspired new readings chapters that take on some of today's most controversial issues, including the effects of the #MeToo movement (in a chapter featuring all women writers), tolerance and free speech on campus, algorithm bias, the ethics of cultural appropriation, whether democracy is in danger, and how we construct and treat the "Other."
Fresh and timely new readings. More than a third of the featured arguments are new, covering dozens of high-interest topics. Notable additions include these:
- Suzanne Nossel argues in "The Pro-Free Speech Way to Fight Fake News" that the best way to counter exceedingly partisan media and fraudulent stories is to give consumers the tools to think critically.
- Ashwini Tambe highlights the groups of women marginalized by marches and protests in "Reckoning with the Silences of #MeToo."
- Kwame Anthony Appiah cautions against granting too much authority to collective identities in "Go Ahead, Speak for Yourself."
More help with fostering information literacy. Early chapters on critical reading and writing are updated to include topics such as confirmation bias, and Chapter 7, "Using Sources," is modernized to help students interrogate their sources for reliability, relevance, and accuracy. New sections such as "Why Finding Reliable Internet Sources Is So Challenging" understand that digital natives seek and find information online and provides instruction and visual examples of sponsored content, fake news sites, and scholarly databases so that students can evaluate and use research effectively.
New Visual Guides that support critical thinking. Graphics and flow charts now aid students in designing their own paths through common argument tasks such as writing a critical summary and organizing an analysis.
Annotated essays that make argument moves visible. In addition to the student essays that are marked to show writers' strategies, this edition features several selections by professional writers that provide support for understanding argument during the reading process and highlight writers' rhetorical moves and persuasive strategies.
Even more topics on critical thinking and reading. New sections include a "Survey, Analyze, and Evaluate" process for working through an issue, an understanding of "Obstacles to Critical Thinking," and strategies for "Approaching an Issue (or an Assignment)."
Writing prompts that support major course assignments. Each chapter on critical thinking, reading, and writing now features a capstone writing prompt that allows students to practice argument in common assignment genres.
"Current Issues and Enduring Questions will provide the core for almost any approach to teaching argumentation. It is readable without being condescending, practical without being formulaic, and flexible without being devoid of an overarching view of writing, reading, and thinking."
— Larry Beason, University of South Alabama"Current Issues and Enduring Questions is unique and special in that it treats critical thinking, reading, and writing in equal standing."
— Reid T. Sagara, College of the Desert"This is a "complete" text! It contains all the resources an instructor might need: the essential aspects of an introduction to critical thinking and argument, the research paper, analyzing visual arguments, and a great selection of readings on popular topics. There is something for everyone in Current Issues and Enduring Questions."
— John McKinnis, SUNY Buffalo State"Current Issues is a book that challenges students, but does so in a way that encourages and enables them to meet those challenges. I know of no other textbook that does this so effectively."
— Ted Brown, Murray State University"With its tight focus on argument and solid blend of classic and contemporary essays, Current Issues and Enduring Questions supports students and provides them with the resources they need."
— Jayanti Tamm, Ocean County College
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Table of Contents
Preface
PART ONE: CRITICAL THINKING AND READING
1 Critical Thinking
Thinking through an Issue
Analyzing and Evaluating from Multiple Perspectives
Survey, Analyze, and Evaluate the Issue
Visual Guide: Evaluating a Proposal
Obstacles to Critical Thinking
Anticipating Counterarguments
Critical Thinking at Work: From a Cluster to a Short Essay
ALEXA CABRERA, Stirred and Strained: Pastafarians Should Be Allowed to Practice in Prison (annotated student essay)
Generating Ideas: Writing as a Way of Thinking
Confronting Unfamiliar Issues
Using Clustering to Discover Ideas
Approaching an Issue (or an Assignment)
Prompting Yourself: Classical Topics and Invention
An Essay for Generating Ideas
NINA FEDOROFF, The Genetically Engineered Salmon Is a Boon for Consumers and Sustainability
Thinking Critically: Generating Ideas with Topics
Thinking Critically about the Issue
A Checklist for Critical Thinking
A Short Essay Calling for Critical Thinking
LYNN STUART PARRAMORE, Fitbits for Bosses (annotated)
Examining Assumptions
A Checklist for Examining Assumptions
*HELEN BENEDICT, The Military Has a Man Problem
Assignments for Critical Thinking
2 Critical Reading: Getting Started
Active Reading
Previewing
A Short Essay for Previewing Practice
Thinking Critically: Previewing
SANJAY GUPTA, Why I Changed My Mind on Weed
Reading with a Careful Eye: Underlining, Highlighting, Annotating
Reading: Fast and Slow
Defining Terms and Concepts
Summarizing and Paraphrasing
A Checklist for a Paraphrase
Patchwriting and Plagiarism
Strategies for Summarizing
Critical Summary
Visual Guide: Writing a Critical Summary
A Short Essay for Summarizing Practice
SUSAN JACOBY, A First Amendment Junkie (annotated)
A Checklist for a Summary
Essays for Analysis
GWEN WILDE, Why the Pledge of Allegiance Should Be Revised (annotated student essay)
ZACHARY SHEMTOB and DAVID LAT, Executions Should Be Televised
A Casebook for Critical Reading: Should Some Kinds of Speech Be Censored?
*SUZANNE NOSSEL, The Pro-Free Speech Way to Fight Fake News
CHARLES R. LAWRENCE III, On Racist Speech
Assignments for Critical Reading
3 Critical Reading: Getting Deeper into Arguments
Persuasion, Argument, and Rhetorical Appeals
Visual Guide: Evaluating Persuasive Appeals
Thinking Critically: Identifying Ethos
Reason, Rationalization, and Confirmation Bias
Types of Reasoning
Induction
Deduction
Premises and Syllogisms
Some Procedures in Argument
Definitions
Assumptions
Evidence: Experimentation, Examples, Authoritative Testimony, and Numerical Data
Thinking Critically: Authoritative Testimony
A Checklist for Evaluating Statistical Evidence
Nonrational Appeals
Satire, Irony, Sarcasm
Emotional Appeals
Thinking Critically: Nonrational Appeals
Does All Writing Contain Arguments?
A Checklist for Analyzing an Argument
An Example: An Argument and a Look at the Writer's Strategies
*JOHN TIERNEY, The Reign of Recycling (annotated)
Arguments for Analysis
*KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH, Go Ahead, Speak for Yourself
*NAUSICAA RENNER, How Do You Explain The "Obvious?"
ANNA LISA RAYA, It's Hard Enough Being Me (student essay)
RONALD TAKAKI, The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority
JAMES Q. WILSON, Just Take Away Their Guns
*BERNIE SANDERS, We Must Make Public Colleges and Universities Tuition Free
Assignments for Critical Reading
4 Visual Rhetoric: Thinking about Images as Arguments
Uses of Visual Images
Types of Emotional Appeals
Seeing versus Looking: Reading Advertisements
A Checklist for Analyzing Images
Levels of Images
Visual Guide: Analyzing Images
Documenting Reality: Reading Photographs
A Word on "Alternative Facts"
Accommodating, Resisting, and Negotiating the Meaning of Images
Are Some Images Not Fit to Be Shown?: Politics and Pictures
An Argument on Publishing Images
Writing about Political Cartoons
Thinking Critically: Analysis of a Political Cartoon
A Checklist for Analyzing Political Cartoons
An Example: A Student's Essay Analyzing Images
*RYAN KWON, The American Pipe Dream? (annotated student essay)
Visuals as Aids to Clarity: Maps, Graphs, and Pie Charts
A Word on Misleading or Manipulative Visual Data
A Checklist for Charts and Graphs
Using Visuals in Your Own Paper
Additional Images for Analysis
DOROTHEA LANGE, Migrant Mother
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, World War II Recruitment Poster
NORA EPHRON, The Boston Photographs
Assignments in Visual Rhetoric
Part Two CRITICAL WRITING
5 Writing an Analysis of an Argument
Analyzing an Argument
Examining The Author's Thesis
Examining The Author's Purpose
Examining The Author's Methods
Examining The Author's Persona
Examining The Author's Audience
A Checklist for Analyzing an Author's Intended Audience
Organizing Your Analysis
Visual Guide: Organizing Your Analysis
Summary versus Analysis
A Checklist for Analyzing a Text
An Argument, Its Elements, and a Student's Analysis of the Argument
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, For Environmental Balance, Pick Up a Rifle
Thinking Critically: Examining Language to Analyze an Author's Argument
The Essay Analyzed
*THERESA CARCALDI, For Sound Argument, Drop The Jokes: How Kristof Falls Short in Convincing His Audience (annotated student essay)
An Analysis of the Student's Analysis
A Checklist for Writing an Analysis of an Argument
Arguments for Analysis
JEFF JACOBY, Bring Back Flogging
*MATTHEW WALTHER, Sorry, Nerds: Video Games Are Not a Sport
JUSTIN CRONIN, Confessions of a Liberal Gun Owner
*CARL SAFINA, Never Mind Theory
Assignment for Writing an Analysis of an Argument
6 Developing an Argument of Your Own
Planning an Argument
Getting Ideas: Argument as an Instrument of Inquiry
Three Brainstorming Strategies: Freewriting, Listing, and Diagramming
Revision as Invention
Asking Questions with Stasis Theory
Considering Evidence
The Thesis or Main Point
A Checklist for a Thesis Statement
Thinking Critically: Walking the Tightrope
Imagining an Audience
The Audience as Collaborator
Addressing Opposition and Establishing Common Ground
A Checklist for Imagining an Audience
Drafting and Revising Argument
The Title
The Opening Paragraphs
Organizing the Body of the Essay
Visual Guide: Organizing Your Argument
The Ending
Thinking Critically: Using Transitions in Argument
Uses of an Outline
A Checklist for Organizing an Argument
Tone and the Writer's Persona
We, One, or I?
Thinking Critically: Eliminating We, One, and I
A Checklist for Establishing Tone and Persona
Avoiding Sexist Language
Peer Review
A Checklist for Peer Review
A Student's Essay, from Rough Notes to Final Version
EMILY ANDREWS, Why I Don't Spare Change (annotated student essay)
Assignment for an Argument of Your Own
7 Using Sources
Why Use Sources?
Entering a Discourse
Understanding Information Literacy
Choosing a Topic
Finding Sources
Visual Guide: Finding Discourse on Your Topic
Finding Quality Information Online
Finding Articles Using Library Databases
Thinking Critically: Using Search Terms
Locating Books
Evaluating Sources
Scholarly, Popular, and Trade Sources
Evaluating Online Sources
Why Finding Reliable Internet Sources Is So Challenging
A Word on "Fake News"
A Checklist for Identifying Fake News
Native Advertising and Branded Content
Considering How Current Sources Are
A Checklist for Evaluating Sources
Performing Your Own Primary Research
Interviewing Peers and Local Authorities
Visual Guide: Conducting Interviews
Conducting Observations
Conducting Surveys
Research in Archives and Special Collections
Synthesizing Sources
Taking Notes
A Note on Plagiarizing
A Checklist for Avoiding Plagiarism
Compiling an Annotated Bibliography
Quoting from Sources
Visual Guide: Integrating Quotations
Thinking Critically: Using Signal Phrases
Documentation
A Note on Footnotes (and Endnotes)
MLA Format: Citations within the Text
MLA Format: The List of Works Cited
APA Format: Citations within the Text
APA Format: The List of References
A Checklist for Critical Papers Using Sources
An Annotated Student Research Paper in MLA Format
LESLEY TIMMERMAN, An Argument for Corporate Responsibility (annotated student essay)
An Annotated Student Research Paper in APA Format
*HANNAH SMITH BROOKS, Does Ability Determine Expertise? (annotated student essay)
Part Three FURTHER VIEWS ON ARGUMENT
8 A Philosopher's View: The Toulmin Model
Visual Guide: The Toulmin Method
Components of the Toulmin Model
The Claim
Grounds
Warrants
Backing
Modal Qualifiers
Rebuttals
Thinking Critically: Constructing a Toulmin Argument
Putting the Toulmin Method to Work: Responding to an Argument
JAMES E. McWILLIAMS, The Locavore Myth: Why Buying from Nearby Farmers Won't Save the Planet
Thinking with Toulmin's Method
A Checklist Using the Toulmin Method
9 A Logician's View: Deduction, Induction, and Fallacies
Using Formal Logic for Critical Thinking
Visual Guide: Deduction and Induction
Deduction
Examples of Deduction
Induction
Observation and Inference
Probability
Mill's Methods
Fallacies
Fallacies of Ambiguity
Fallacies of Presumption
Fallacies of Irrelevance
Additional Fallacies
A Checklist for Evaluating an Argument from a Logical Point of View
Thinking Critically: Identifying Fallacies
MAX SHULMAN, Love Is a Fallacy
10 A Psychologist's View: Rogerian Argument
Rogerian Argument: An Introduction
Visual Guide: Rogerian Argument
A Checklist for Analyzing Rogerian Argument
CARL R. ROGERS, Communication: Its Blocking and Its Facilitation
EDWARD O. WILSON, Letter to a Southern Baptist Minister
11 A Literary Critic's View: Arguing about Literature
Interpreting
Judging (or Evaluating)
Theorizing
A Checklist for Arguing about Literature
Examples: Two Students Interpret Robert Frost's "Mending Wall"
ROBERT FROST, Mending Wall
JONATHAN DEUTSCH, The Deluded Speaker in Frost's "Mending Wall" (student essay)
FELICIA ALONSO, The Debate in Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" (student essay)
Reading a Poem and a Story
*RICHARD BLANCO, One Today
KATE CHOPIN, The Story of an Hour
Thinking about the Effects of Literature
PLATO, "The Greater Part of the Stories Current Today We Shall Have to Reject"
12 A Debater's View: Individual Oral Presentations and Debate
Oral Presentations
Methods of Delivery
Audience
A Checklist for an Oral Presentation
Delivery
Content
Formal Debates
Standard Debate Format
A Checklist for Preparing for a Debate
Part Four CURRENT ISSUES: OCCASIONS FOR DEBATE
Debates as an Aid to Thinking
A Checklist for Analyzing a Debate
13 Student Loans: Should Some Indebtedness Be Forgiven?
ROBERT APPLEBAUM, Debate on Student Loan Debt Doesn't Go Far Enough
Analyzing a Visual: Student Loan Debt
JUSTIN WOLFERS, Forgive Student Loans? Worst Idea Ever
*14 Are Algorithms Biased (Or Are We)?
*SUFIYA UMOJA NOBLE, Missed Connections: What Search Engines Say about Women
Analyzing a Visual: Predictive Search
*ALEX P. MILLER, Why Do We Care So Much about Explainable Algorithms?: In Defense of the Black Box
*15 (Un)safe Spaces: Can We Tolerate Intolerant Speech on Campus?
*JULIA SERANO, Free Speech and the Paradox of Tolerance
Analyzing a Visual: Student Views on Speech
DEREK BOK, Protecting Freedom of Expression on the Campus
16 The Current State of Childhood: Is "Helicopter Parenting" the "Problem" with Millennials?
NICK GILLESPIE, Millennials Are Selfish and Entitled, and Helicopter Parents Are to Blame
Analyzing a Visual: Overparenting
ALFIE KOHN, The One-Sided Culture War against Children
17 Genetic Modification of Human Beings: Is It Acceptable?
RONALD M. GREEN, Building Baby from the Genes Up
Analyzing a Visual: Genetic Modification of Human Beings
RICHARD HAYES, Genetically Modified Humans? No Thanks
18 Military Service: Should It Be Required?
CHARLES RANGEL, The Draft Would Compel Us to Share the Sacrifice
Analyzing a Visual: Military Recruiting
JAMES LACEY, We Need Trained Soldiers, Not a Horde of Draftees
Part Four CURRENT ISSUES: CASEBOOKS
19 A College Education: What Is Its Purpose?
ANDREW DELBANCO, 3 Reasons College Still Matters
CARLO ROTELLA, No, It Doesn't Matter What You Majored In
EDWARD CONARD, We Don't Need More Humanities Majors
CHRISTIAN MADSBJERG AND MIKKEL B. RASMUSSEN, We Need More Humanities Majors
*CAROLINE HARPER, HBCUs, Black Women, and STEM Success
*20 Race and Criminal Justice: Is the System Broken?
ADAM GOPNIK, The Caging of America
MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN, The Cradle to Prison Pipeline
PRISON POLICY INITIATIVE, Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie (infographic)
*HEATHER MAC DONALD, The Myth of Criminal-Justice Racism
STEVE CHAPMAN, Are Blacks to Blame for Cops' Actions?
*PAUL BUTLER, The Chokehold
*21 The Ethics of Appropriation: Is It OK to Copy?
*KENAN MALIK, The Bane of Cultural Appropriation
*YO ZUSHI, What's Mine Is Yours
*K. TEMPEST BRADFORD, Cultural Appropriation Is, In Fact, Indefensible
*CONOR FRIEDERSDORF, A Food Fight at Oberlin College
*ANDREA PITZER, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
*KENNETH GOLDSMITH, Uncreative Writing
22 Online Versus IRL: How Has Social Networking Changed How We Relate to One Another?
JULES EVANS, Are We Slaves to Our Online Selves?
NAVNEET ALANG, Eat, Pray, Post
*HOSSEIN DERAKSHAN, How Social Media Endangers Knowledge
STEPHEN MARCHE, Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?
JOSH ROSE, How Social Media Is Having a Positive Impact on Our Culture
*JARON LANIER, Social Media Is Making You into an Asshole
*TOURIA BENLAFQIH, Has Social Media Made Young People Better Citizens?
23 Immigration: What Is to Be Done?
*AVIVA CHOMSKY, Talking Sense about Immigration
*JOSEPH CARENS, The Case for Open Borders
*REIHAN SALAM, Beyond the Wall
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, Our Brave New World of Immigration
Analyzing Visuals: Immigration Then and Now
*24 #MeToo: (How) Has Society Changed for Women?
*SARAH JAFFE, The Collective Power of #MeToo
*ASHWINI TAMBE, Reckoning with the Silences of #MeToo
*V.L. SEEK, Utmost Resistance
*ROBIN WEST, Manufacturing Consent
*BECKY HAYES, The Critics of #MeToo and the Due Process Fallacy
*BARI WEISS, The Limits of "Believe All Women"
*25 American Democracy: Is Our Nation in Danger?
*IAN BREMMER, Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism
*DAVID RUNCIMAN, How Democracy Ends
*SEBASTIEN THIBAULT, America's Collapse (Illustration)
*RUSSELL MUIRHEAD AND NANCY ROSENBLUM, The New Conspiracists
*GANESH SITARAMAN, Divided We Fall
*MEGAN McARDLE, The New Nationalism America Needs Right Now
Part Six ENDURING QUESTIONS: ESSAYS, POEMS, AND STORIES
26 What Is the Ideal Society?
THOMAS MORE, From Utopia
NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI, From The Prince
THOMAS JEFFERSON, The Declaration of Independence
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., I Have a Dream
W. H. AUDEN, The Unknown Citizen
EMMA LAZARUS, The New Colossus
WALT WHITMAN, One Song, America, Before I Go
URSULA K. LE GUIN, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
*27 How and Why Do We Construct the "Other"?
*JEAN-PAUL SARTRE, Anti-Semite and Jew
*HANS MASSAQUOI, Destined to Witness
*W.E.B. DUBOIS, Of Our Spiritual Strivings
*BRIDGET ANDERSON, The Politics of Pests: Immigration and the Invasive Other
*JOHN BARTH, Us/Them
*JACOB RIIS, How the Other Half Lives
*SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR, The Woman as Other
*RUDYARD KIPLING, We and They
*EMARI DIGIORGIO, When You Are the Brownest White Girl
28 What Is Happiness?
Thoughts about Happiness, Ancient and Modern
DANIEL GILBERT, Does Fatherhood Make You Happy?
HENRY DAVID THOREAU, Selections from Walden
DARRIN M. McMAHON, In Pursuit of Unhappiness
EPICTETUS, From The Handbook
BERTRAND RUSSELL, The Happy Life
THE DALAI LAMA AND HOWARD C. CUTLER, Inner Contentment
C. S. LEWIS, We Have No "Right to Happiness"
DANIELLE CRITTENDEN, About Love
JUDY BRADY, I Want a Wife
Index of Authors, Titles, and Terms
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Current Issues and Enduring Questions 11th Edition Chapter 1
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